The Hand Holding The Strings
by Frisby10
Summary: Where Berk is only a sea away from Camelot, it does not take Hiccup long to discover the land of Albion. But when Hiccup goes missing, what will the dragon riders do? Can Arthur set aside his prejudices in order to gain a knew ally? Where has Merlin disappeared too anyway? Is Morgana having second thoughts on her war against Camelot? Who is really holding the strings?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Merlin was picking flowers on the day it happened. he picking flowers for Gaius's herb stock, flowers that could only be found in a remote part of Camelot's lands, threes days journey from the castle. Merlin had not wanted to leave the king for that long but with Guinevere restored from the Mandrake root curse which poisoned her mind, he doubted Arthur would even notice him leaving.

He was happy for the couple, they made the perfect king and queen. Merlin had found a full meadow of the flowers he was looking for and had just finished picking a basket-full. He carefully placed his root into a cloth bag to dry out before packing up his makeshift camp and heading back along the road to Camelot.

He had only been walking for a short time when a flash of silver caught his eye. He stopped, thinking it was a bandit, and prepared to knock it unconscious with a falling tree branch overhead. But after a while, when the silver remained un-moving, he moved off of the road and into a clearing filled with a strange plant where he quickly discovered a silver shield.

The clearing had obviously been the site of a battle of some sort, however, what puzzled him more was the black scales littered every where and the lack of dead bodies. Picking up the shield, Merlin examined it for more clues. It was made of metal, however it was extremely lightweight and somewhat hollow. he hit the front of the shield and an echoing sound told him it was definitely hollow.

The front of the shield had a dragon painted onto it, but it was black with half of it's tail painted red, more feline than Camelot's and curled around the centre bulge of the shield. Suddenly a loud thump came from behind him, then two more either side of him. a snort that sounded much like a large wyvern behind him startled Merlin into movement. Dropping the shield and whirling around, Merlin glimpsed a flash of blue behind a large tree at the edge of the clearing. Bandits!

He turned to run but tripped over the shield he had dropped. The shield gave a loud click before firing something at him, and when he slowed time reflexively he recognised it as three large stones trailing thick rope behind them which were all attached somehow in the middle. _It looks like something Arthur would use to catch a bear_ he thought before his magic slipped and the ropes wound around him, snapping his arms and legs together.

 _Quite effective_ though Merlin who was still surprisingly calm as he toppled over. he hit the ground face first and heard a snapping sound before he felt a blinding white pain in his nose and tasted his blood as it trickled into the dirt. He rolled back over as quickly as he could, searching for a tree branch he could drop on his attackers but they were already too close, they would see his eyes change if he tried anything now. He took a good look at his attackers as there was not much else he could do, he was still tangled in the rope contraption.

There were three of them, queerly dressed in steel and a weird looking leather, was it yak? He opened his mouth to say something smart but stopped. They were looking behind him, which confused him as he had only heard three thumps... a weird green dragon-wyvern hybrid with two heads of all things poked both of its necks out revealing two saddles on its necks. _oh..? they rode the dragons, but that would mean..._ someone grabbed his hair and yanked his head forcefully back, and he felt the cold sting of steel at his throat.

Merlin had time to think _oh no_ and _So there's four of them_ , before a decidedly female but extremely terrifying voice shouted in his ear.

"WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN HICCUP! WHERE IS HE!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi Everybody, here is the next chapter, but before I start, I would just like to thank** ** _frivouloshumdinger_** **for the review! I really appreciate the support! also, are my chapters too short? Any review is welcome, including constructive criticism but anyway, enough rambling on: here is chapter 2**

* * *

Merlin woke up to a throbbing headache, a bucket of icy cold water and a crowd of Vikings pointing weapons at him. Needless to say, he did not remain sleepy for long. _Just my luck, captured by Vikings_ he thought. Coughing some water out of his mouth, he tried to sit up, which was difficult with his hands tied together behind his back and a throbbing headache. The man beside him sighed and pulled him to his feet before standing him in front of the Viking horde. They were in a large, dimly lit hall, with the only outside light coming from a crack in the two large doors on the other side of the Vikings.A giant man stood on tone of the tables in front of Merlin, he was as big as Percival at least and had a large head of red hair which was full of braids and metal beads. Merlin was not sure whether his magic could defeat a whole army of vikings, so he waited for the interrogation to begin. Besides, he was curious as to why they had kidnapped him.

" _What is your name boy?"_ asked the man in Norse. _so they did not know he was Emrys. Good, but what did they want?_

" _Merlin"_

 _"Where is Hiccup"_

 _"Who is Hiccup?"_ the crowd of Vikings grumbled and snorted in disbelief.

 _"Hiccup is my son, the future chief of this land. He went missing while on a scouting mission."_

 _Oh so that's why everybody looks so tense_ thought Merlin. And then w _hy would anyone name their son_ _ **Hiccup?**_

 _"Why were you in possession of Hiccup's shield?"_ asked the man again, still very calm for someone who's son was missing.

 _"I saw it in the woods, it had been left at the battle scene, I was intrigued so I examined it."_

 _"you did not see the battle?"_

The crowd was becoming restless, shuffling about and muttering. _"no I did not"_ replied Merlin.

 _"I think we might have got the wrong person Stoick"_ whispered a man with a hammer for an arm and a peg leg to the chief.

" _I agree Gobber"_ said Stoick quietly before shouting " _RESUME THE SEARCH PATROLS! Gobber, you take care of the boy. "_ before storming out of the hall.

 _"Can I go back to Camelot now?"_ asked Merlin hopefully

Gobber sighed sadly " _Sorry boy, Astrid said that you saw the twin's dragon, we can't let you leave to tell our potential enemies all our secrets can we!"_

 _"what if I have secret of my own?"_ asked Merlin.

" _like what boy?"_ He and Gobber were the only ones left in the hall now. " _I doubt it will help your case anyway, unless you have a dragon of your own?"_ Gobber laughed at his own joke.

" _How about this?"_ and with a flash of his eyes, his ropes fell off of his hands. Gobber's jaw went slack.

" _You're a sorcerer?"_ Gobber stuttered on the word slightly, still disbelieving

"How do you think I knew how to speak Norse?"

" _Sorry?"_

 _"How do you think I learnt to speak Norse? and about that dragon thing, can we please go out side?"_

Gobber nodded weakly before leading Merlin out of the giant doors. Outside, Merlin was momentarily frozen by the beautiful view, a golden sun wreathed in peach and purple clouds was setting over the village which was perched on the edge of a steep cliff. Past the cliff were the deep sapphire sea, parted only by elegantly carved pillars shaped like Vikings, watch fire lighting their mouths.

" _Shut your mouth lad"_ said Gobber laughing at Merlin's expression " _Now what were you going to show me?"_

 _"I will need a large space"_ said Merlin

" _The Dragon Training Academy will do"_

* * *

With the Dragon Training Academy prepared, Merlin stood in the middle and roared out into the night.

"O _drakon i mala soi ftengometh tsed'hup anakes! Erkheo!"_

A few minutes later a large flapping sound was heard in the night and Kilgharrah descended into the arena. "young dragon lord, I had wondered where you had disappeared too"

Merlin smiled up at the dragon until Gobber tapped him nervously on the shoulder " _it can talk!?"_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi Everyone! Remember me? haven't updated in so long but I have made some edits to the structure of the story so its a good idea to read from the beginning i think if you recently haven't already :) anyway, enjoy :)**

-Hiccup was having a wonderful day. What had started off as a quiet scouting mission of a newly discovered land had quickly turned sour when a baby white dragon had accidentally set toothless's prosthetic tail fin on fire with a fireball before hiccup could properly calm it. the emergency landing into the forest below had been surprisingly more gentle than normal, but he was still going to have scratches and bruises the next day.

But scratches and bruises were the worst of his problems at the present moment. unfortunately the crash landing had created quite a ruckus and had come to the attention of a band of knights who were, unluckily, patrolling the area at the time.

Normally, when ambushed in strange new lands, Hiccup could rely on Toothless's protection to keep him safe. but since his day was destined to be _just wonderful,_ Toothless managed to land himself in a patch of wild dragon-nip and blissfully rolled around while Hiccup was attacked from behind, gagged and trussed up like a chicken before being tied onto the back of a horse.

Now, the knights being smarter than the average viking had quickly figured out that what was stopping the scary black dragon from attacking them was the very plant it was rolling in, had quickly obtained a wagon full of it, in a wagon and chained and muzzled the sedate and frankly useless reptile on top.

Now the strange procession was slowly making its way towards a castle that Hiccup had heard the knights talking about in English, a strange language that Hiccup had learnt back in the days when his only real friend had been Gobber. Hiccup would have liked to have learnt more about this strange new land, however, his tight gag prevented him from making noises any louder than a squeak, let alone coherent sentences in a strange language.

The procession made it to the crest of a hill where the forest made way for crops and livestock, and Hiccup got a glimpse of the castle, made of white marble and shining brightly in the hot afternoon sun. The view was beautiful, and on in other circumstances Hiccup would have felt joy and an uncontrollable urge to sketch the sight before him.

however, in this case the high walls of the castle were more foreboding than majestic and Hiccup felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek, as the physical and emotional stresses of the day took their toll.

The procession travelled through the lower city, Hiccup could catch some of the mutters of the towns people. They looked quite civilised at least, even though the remarks were far from it.

"... can't wait to see the crows feast on that beast's head Astlith..."

"...that dragon wont put up much of a fight.."

"... who cares Godwyn! I'm more interested in that one legged boy there..."

the conversations of the lower city faded to mumbles as Hiccup passed through yet another set of gates into a courtyard where they stopped and the knights dismounted. It seemed that Hiccups journey had come to an end. _Well, their flag does have a dragon on it, if they would only get rid of this gag, maybe i could talk some sense into them_ thought Hiccup.

Suddenly the knights who had been standing around Hiccup and Toothless and talking quietly stood to attention and bowed. Hiccup looked up to see two very regal looking figures descending into the courtyard and down some very regal looking steps. Hiccup gulped, feeling his exhaustion rise again, and suddenly feeling less sure as he watched the Kings face scowl as he caught sight of Toothless.

"Your Highness King Arthur" said a bowing knight Hiccup had learned was called Sir Geraint.

"Sir Geraint" replied the King. "what have you brought into my city? Is it a wise idea to bring a creature that fierce into the presence of many innocent people whose live could be endangered by it?"

"If you please sire, the beast has been well-contained, that herb he is chained by kept him docile throughout the entirety of our trip from the forest of Ascetir. No, if it had just been the beast we had found we would not have burdened Camelot with its presence. However, do you observe the contraption on its back?"

King Arthur advanced towards Toothless and inspected the mangled saddle and metal-work. "Why it seems to be some sort of saddle?"

"Exactly sire, and we have managed to capture the rider as well" stated the now grinning Geraint as he pulled the horse Hiccup was still tied to forwards. Too exhausted now to do much more, Hiccup watched the King wearily as he examined Hiccup.

"Well done, perhaps this sorcerer can reveal information as to what he was doing flying a beast into a kingdom in which magic is banned" King Arthur said solemnly, frowning a little as he tried to find a rhyme and reason within Hiccup, no scratch that, Hiccup was a sorcerer now apparently, so the 'sorcerers' logic. "Take him and his beast to the dungeons and chain them well, use the magic suppressing collar for safety. But it is almost dusk and I have matters to attend to."

King Arthur turned to rejoin his wife and they began to exit the courtyard when the King turned suddenly and asked in a completely different manner "oh by the way if any of you see Merlin around, that useless bag of bones was supposed to be back from his 'flower and herb expedition' yesterday but my stables are _still_ a mess!"

The knights laughed as they imagined the scolding Merlin would be getting later that evening before they untied Hiccup from the horse. Hiccup, whose legs had long ago gone numb from lack of use, collapsed under him as he was pulled off of the horse, but he was quickly hoisted back up onto his feet by the knights.

Then, a strange looking collar was fastened around his neck and manacles clasped over his still tied wrists, he was half dragged down into the dungeons, managing to stumble most of the way to his cell _graceful Hiccup, so graceful_ where he had his prosthetic confiscated and his remaining ankle chained to the wall along with his wrists.

The cell was dry, thankfully, but it's only comforts were a pile of straw and a bowl of water that was just out of reach, most likely on purpose. However, Hiccup was considerably cheered when an equally bound and slightly more aware Toothless was placed in the cell next to his.

However, Toothless promptly lay down to sleep the effects of the dragon nip off, giving only a small purr to acknowledge Hiccups presence so Hiccup found the most comfortable position he could in the straw mound before attempting to sleep. This interrogation sounded like he was going to need all the strength he had.


End file.
